


The One Where Chandler Dated A Guy

by BookGirlFan



Category: Friends (TV)
Genre: Bisexual Chandler Bing, Coming Out, F/M, M/M, Period Typical Attitudes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-05
Updated: 2020-11-05
Packaged: 2021-03-08 23:49:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,625
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27395263
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BookGirlFan/pseuds/BookGirlFan
Summary: After Chandler and Monica's engagement, Joey spills a secret.(Mostly) canon-compliant.
Relationships: Chandler Bing & Joey Tribbiani, Chandler Bing/Monica Geller, Chandler Bing/Original Character(s)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 50





	The One Where Chandler Dated A Guy

“It’s still so weird you guys are engaged,” Joey said, shaking his head in wonder, “After that time Chandler dated a guy I never thought this would happen.”

“Chandler dated a guy?” The entire group turned to look first at Joey, then at Chandler.

Chandler shot a, “You promised not to talk about that!” at Joey before he smiled awkwardly, squeezing Monica’s hand from where they were sitting together in the big chair in their apartment.

“Sure he did!” Joey continued. “Right after he broke up with Janice.”

“Which time?” Rachel joked.

“The one right before my birthday party, where he got drunk and kissed everyone, including my sister.” He shot Chandler a glare.

Chandler pointed at him. “You forgave me for that, and your sister punched me!”

Joey held the glare for a second, then grinned. “Yeah, I remember.”

“Never mind about that, tell us more about Chandler’s date!” Rachel said excitedly, leaning forward in eagerness.

“Alright. It was the day after my birthday...”

***

_The phone rang, shattering the hungover silence of the apartment._

_Chandler staggered out of his bedroom and over to the phone, lifting it with a whispered, “Hello?”_

_“Hi, this is Jonathan from the party last night. I had a great time, and was wondering if you want to go out for a drink sometime?”_

_“Sure,” Chandler said, rubbing his head. “Look, this isn’t the best time. Can you call back later?”_

_“Uh, yeah. I can do that.”_

_“Bye.” Chandler hung up the phone, then reached out and picked up one of the many lipstick stained cups scattered around it. “Who drunk all these?” His eyes widened. “Oh no. Joey’s going to kill me.”_

_***_

_A few days after the party, when Chandler’s black eye had mostly faded, Jonathan called back again and they made plans to meet up._

_On the night, a knock came on the apartment door._

_“It’s open!” Chandler called, reading the newspaper at the counter._

_The door opened and a man peered around, then, seeing Chandler, walked in. “Hey, Chandler.”_

_Chandler dropped his newspaper. “Jonathan? Yes, hello, Jonathan! Joey’s out for the night, so it will just be the two of us. Just give me a sec, I’ll be ready to go.” He went back into his bedroom to grab a jacket, then came back out._

_Jonathan, still standing by the door, smiled at him. “You look good.”_

_Chandler looked down at his jacket and then back up. “Thanks, it’s the crippling aloneness.”_

_Jonathan laughed. “Hopefully you can leave that at home tonight.”_

_“I’ll try, but it’s pretty fond of me.” He headed for the door, grabbing his keys on the way. “Let’s go or my friends are going to come up and ambush you. They’re a great bunch, but if they catch us, we won’t be going anywhere.”_

_Still smiling, Jonathan headed out the door, Chandler following him and closing it behind them._

_***_

_Later that night, Chandler and Jonathan came walking back up the apartment stairs, both talking and laughing. “And Joey really didn’t notice?”_

_“No, he still thinks I just ate it all. He even asked me why I didn’t share it!”_

_They both laughed, coming to a stop outside the door to Apartment 19._

_Chandler opened the door, holding it open invitingly. “You want to come in?”_

_“No,” Jonathan waved him off, “I got to get back, I got an early rehearsal tomorrow.” He shifted from foot to foot. “Want to do this again?”_

_Chandler shrugged. “Sure, why not? 7 on Thursday sound good? There’s a Rangers game I’ve got tickets for.”_

_“I’ll see you then.” Jonathan hesitated for a moment, then leaned in and kissed Chandler’s cheek, turning and leaving Chandler standing there shocked._

_***_

_“Hey, how’d things go last night hanging out with Jonathan?” Joey asked, entering the apartment the next morning._

_Chandler just stared at the door, blank faced._

_“Have you been there all night?” Joey frowned. “Chan, what happened?”_

_Still staring at the door, Chandler asked, “Can you go on a date without knowing it’s a date?”_

_“Believe me, whenever I take a girl on a date, she knows it’s a date,” Joey leered. His expression changed to one of confusion. “When did you go on a date? Weren’t you out with Jonathan?_

_Chandler looked away from the door to give him a ‘no, duh’ expression._

_“Ohhh!” Joey nodded, then broke into a grin. “You had a date with Jonathan!”_

_“No!” Chandler protested instinctively. “No! It doesn’t count if I don’t know it’s a date!”_

_Joey leant on the counter beside Chandler. “So, now you know, what are you going to do?”_

_“Well, he wants to go out again on Thursday, but obviously I can’t go, right?” He looked to Joey._

_Joey considered it for a moment. “Do you want to go?”_

_“No!” Chandler’s shoulders slumped. “I don’t know. I don’t date guys!”_

_“He does,” Joey said nonchalantly. Chandler looked at him in shock. Joey shrugged. “Jonathan’s gay.”_

_Chandler spluttered for a moment. “And you didn’t tell me that?”_

_“I thought you knew that when you kissed him!”_

_“I kissed him?!”_

_“Yeah, at my birthday party! You don’t remember that?”_

_“I don’t remember anything from that night!”_

_“That explains a lot. But really, man, you kissed heaps of people that night. But not me.” Joey frowned. “Hey! Why didn’t you kiss me? It was my birthday and everything!”_

_Chandler stared at him, eyes wide. “Not the time, Joe!”_

_“Fine!”_

_They paused._

_“So, are you going to go out with him again?”_

_“I don’t know.”_

_“Well, did you like your date this time?”_

_“It wasn’t a date. If I didn’t know it was a date, it didn’t count.”_

_“Forget about that! Did you like it?”_

_Chandler rubbed the back of his neck. “Yeah, I kind of did.”_

_“So go for it!”_

_“I can’t!” Chandler stood and paced across the room. “No, I can’t. When he comes over, I’ll just tell him I can’t go out with him again. I’m not gay!”_

_“Alright. But you know I wouldn’t care if you were, right?”_

_Chandler opened his mouth to protest again, then just said, “I know. Thanks, Joe.”_

_“No problem.” Joey clapped Chandler on the shoulder then went past him to his bedroom._

_***_

_On Thursday night, Chandler opened the door to see Jonathan’s smiling face. “Hey! Are you excited for the game?”_

_“Yeah, look... I think you better come inside.” He opened the door wider._

_Jonathan came inside, stopping awkwardly in the kitchen. “That doesn’t sound good.”_

_“Yeah. Uh, Jonathan? I think you may have gotten the wrong idea about me... and me and you...this.” He gestured between them. “I’m not...”_

_“Oh.” Jonathan’s face fell. “You weren’t that serious.” He covered his face with both hands. “You were just looking for a fling, that’s why you kissed me that night, and here I am thinking it could be the start of something.”_

_Still with one hand over his face, he groped blindly for the doorknob. “I’m so sorry, I’m... I’m just going to leave. Please, forget this ever happened. I’ll see you around - or not.” He finally managed to find the doorknob and opened the door, disappearing into the hall while Chandler was still standing in the apartment, speechless._

_Too late, Chandler jerked into motion, running to the door and calling after Jonathan, “Wait! Don’t go! We can talk about this!” He paused. “What am I doing?”_

***

As Joey’s story came to a close, the whole group turned to stare at Chandler.

“You really dated a guy?” Rachel asked.

“In my defence, I didn’t know it was a date at the time,” Chandler said.

“But then you nearly went on another one! What, was he just that good-looking?”

Joey shrugged. “Jonathan is pretty good-looking.”

They turned to stare at him instead.

Joey noticed their stares. “Hey, don’t look at me, I’m not the one who dated him!”

“You really did date him, didn’t you?” Rachel asked, sounding surprised. “Would you have gone out with him again if you were gay?”

“It’s not like he wasn’t attractive.” He saw their stares. “Not that attractive! Really, not even in the top ten of guys I’ve been attracted to.” Their stares became even more pronounced, and he winced. “I should stop now.”

“I knew he had to be at least bisexual,” Phoebe loudly whispered to Joey.

“You’ve really been attracted to guys?” Monica asked, ignoring Phoebe’s whispering.

“There may have been a few guys I’ve found...” he cleared his throat awkwardly. “...not bad-looking.”

Monica stood up and stalked into the kitchen, turning around to shout back at him, “I can’t believe you never told me you were gay!”

“I’m not gay! If anything, I’m really more like half gay,” Chandler tried to joke.

Monica threw her hands up in the air. “Great! So I can just marry the straight half, is that it? You can be half in love with me, half in love with some guy!”

Chandler walked over to her. “Mon, look, I’m not half gay and half straight. I’m all... bisexual,” he looked over at Phoebe to make sure he was using the right term and she gave him a quick thumbs up before he turned back to Monica, “and all in love with you.”

She wrapped her arms around him and said, voice shaky, “But what if one day you find a guy out there who’s perfect for you?”

“I don’t need him, because I’ve already got my perfect woman right here. I’d rather have you than anyone else in the world.“ He leant down to meet her lips in a kiss.

“Hey!” Phoebe suddenly said, breaking the two apart as the whole group turned to look at her. “Now Chandler can break the tie on which of you guys is the cutest!” 

**Author's Note:**

> I'm queer, but not bisexual, so please let me know if there's anything I've gotten wrong!


End file.
